a written direction to pay money or deliver goods, given by a person legally entitled to dispose of it:

delivery order; exchange order.

27.

Architecture.

any arrangement of columns with an entablature.

any of five such arrangements typical of classical architecture, including the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders invented by the Greeks and adapted by the Romans, the Tuscan order, invented by the Romans, and the Composite order, first named during the Renaissance.

any of several concentric rings composing an arch, especially when each projects beyond the one below.

28.

orders, the rank or status of an ordained Christian minister.

29.

Usually, orders. the rite or sacrament of ordination.

30.

a prescribed form of divine service or of administration of a rite or ceremony.

31.

the service itself.

32.

the visible structures essential or desirable to the nature of the church, involving especially ministry, polity, and sacraments.

33.

a society or fraternity of knights, of combined military and monastic character, as, in the Middle Ages, the Knights Templars.

34.

a modern organization or society more or less resembling the knightly orders:

fraternal orders.

35.

(initial capital letter) British.

a special honor or rank conferred by a sovereign upon a person for distinguished achievement.

the insignia worn by such persons.

36.

Chiefly British. a pass for admission to a theater, museum, or the like.

verb (used with object)

37.

to give an order, direction, or command to:

The infantry divisions were ordered to advance.

38.

to direct or command to go or come as specified:

to order a person out of one's house.

39.

to prescribe:

The doctor ordered rest for the patient.

40.

to direct to be made, supplied, or furnished:

to order a copy of a book.

41.

to regulate, conduct, or manage:

to order one's life for greater leisure.

42.

to arrange methodically or suitably:

to order chessmen for a game.

43.

Mathematics. to arrange (the elements of a set) so that if one element precedes another, it cannot be preceded by the other or by elements that the other precedes.

44.

to ordain, as God or fate does.

45.

to invest with clerical rank or authority.

verb (used without object)

46.

to give an order or issue orders:

I wish to order, but the waiter is busy.

Idioms

47.

a tall order, a very difficult or formidable task, requirement, or demand:

Getting the crop harvested with so few hands to help was a tall order.

early 13c., "body of persons living under a religious discipline," from Old French ordre "position, estate; rule, regulation; religious order" (11c.), from earlier ordene, from Latin ordinem (nominative ordo) "row, rank, series, arrangement," originally "a row of threads in a loom," from Italic root *ord- "to arrange, arrangement" (cf. ordiri "to begin to weave," e.g. in primordial), of unknown origin.

Meaning "a rank in the (secular) community" is first recorded c.1300; meaning "command, directive" is first recorded 1540s, from the notion of "to keep in order." Military and honorary orders grew our of the fraternities of Crusader knights. Business and commerce sense is attested from 1837. In natural history, as a classification of living things, it is first recorded 1760. Meaning "condition of a community which is under the rule of law" is from late 15c.

Phrase in order to (1650s) preserves etymological notion of "sequence." The word reflects a medieval notion: "a system of parts subject to certain uniform, established ranks or proportions," and was used of everything from architecture to angels. Old English expressed many of the same ideas with endebyrdnes. In short order "without delay" is from 1834, American English; order of battle is from 1769.

v.

c.1200, "give order to, to arrange in order," from order (n.). Meaning "to give orders for or to" is from 1540s. Related: Ordered; ordering.

order definition

In biology, the classification lower than a class and higher than a family. Dogs and cats belong to the order of carnivores; human beings, monkeys, and apes belong to the order of primates. Flies and mosquitoes belong to the same order; so do birch trees and oak trees. (SeeLinnean classification.)